Guild Wars 2

Thought I would share my thoughts about the expansion.

The Good

These are what I will whole heartedly praise Arena Net for one reason or another.
First off is the Open World. This is the best part, lots of content, lots of events, lots of new enemies. The map wide meta events are all very fun and very epic, and they work well with the new gliders. It is great seeing the community pull together on a map wide scale. Commanders and Mentors keeping everyone moving and have been a testament to the community. Good job A-net and good job players.

Next up is the loot. New weapon and armour skins are cool. This is going to give me a lot to work for in the future. And best of all I have not saw a lot of people using the new skins so for the time being they have at least some prestige. Good job on the shiny shiny.

Gliding and mushrooms, Kind of linked with the Open World but deserves a mention none the less. I was not expecting to enjoy the new movement modes so much and having a couple of the old back pieces appear as gliders did get me excited when I first entered the new areas. If adding new modes of movement is Arena Nets answer to mounts in the future I would be quite happy, indeed. So Good job for thinking outside the box.

Elite Specialisations, I think we can all agree that this was the best bit. Giving each class a new way to play was a smart idea and although not all are created equal there is something there for everyone. I know I will be playing some of my least played classes just to try the new Elite Spec. Good job for skill points.

Next up is the Bad

The Bad

The unexpected effects. Tomes of knowledge are the best example of this, they are fairly useless now unless you want to level alts. Kind of sad but I understand why. Making some of these changes clearer, earlier would have been helpful. Developers in general should not assume that every player downloading the Expansion have been following the game for months or watching and reading every bit of news. As a players I have had to teach some friends about some of the changes made to the game. Bad job on foresight.

Padding could be managed better. Padding can be fine and can extend content in an enjoyable way. But some of the Masteries required for the story content come out of the blue. A little bit more focus would have been nice. Bad job on staying on target.

I know this section was short but the next is the big one so stick with me here.

Other stuff

Okay this is the where I am going to discuss things I have mixed feelings about.

Story. Pacing aside I felt that the story was quite good. Not amazing, but quite good. The reason why it is not in the “Good” section is because of how it seems a bit wishy washy at times. New concepts are thrown in very quickly without delving too deeply into them. But there are very cool set pieces with some great voice acting. Much better than the implementation of the core games story, but still not perfect. This feels more like Arena Net are just finding their stride, hopefully the next expansion will have a better quality story. But for now it is a little bit disappointing, only a little bit though.

Activities. These are fun, but I can’t help but I feel like keeping them in the HoT areas was a mistake. Some of these could be placed in the core of Tyria like the infamous shooting range in Divinity’s Reach. Granted these could be added at a later date but this seems like it could be a neat way to wet the whistles of a specific group of gamer. “Oh, you want more activities? then maybe you should invest in the expansion”. A missed opportunity here in my opinion.

The Revenant. This is a really fun class but unfortunately this falls under the category of “buying power”(at least to me). Despite this class being pretty balanced (at least from what I have experienced) it has a unique play style that could provide an advantage. However considering the fact that this fills the niche of the 3rd heavy character, this probably won’t happen again, so I can look past it.

Interaction with the core game. I can’t help but feel that the interaction with the core game was very limited here. This is a tiny and personal thing but being able to visibly show off things to players who don’t own the expansion is limited to “Look a Revenant!” or “Look and Elite Spec!”. Having more things to show off is always a nice way to convince other players.

One last section left….

Final section these are my closing thoughts and personal suggestions for the future.

Is it worth the money?

Yes very fun, a solid expansion. I have played expansions that have had less content spread over more area or space. HoT has a nice comfortable mixture of content that should have something for everyone. But it won’t change peoples opinion on GW2 if they felt it was not for them.

How do we move forward?

New innovative ways of getting around. People like mounts, but gliders are just as good. If Arena-Net can keep this up in a couple of future expansions, like a diving device in an underwater expansion or some form of sled.

Saying that, it can be disappointing to walk around the core content and not have glide. I would love to be able to use my glider in the main maps, obviously being locked out in “no-gliding zones”, near jumping puzzles and such.

Disappointing amount of gem store-ness. I get it, it is cosmetic but hear me out here. Every Glider skin is obtained through the gem store, it would have been a perfect opportunity to use The Holographic Wings or some other back pieces earned through in game content. Some special little gliders made of things earned rather than bought. Alternative have a glider crafted from some of the disciplines.

Finally the Living World, I feel like HoT is relying too much on the Living World to finish things off. Big risk but I am looking forward to seeing the results. HoT fit in very nicely with the last season, so there is a potential of greatness here. Fingers crossed.

Thank you to everyone who has read this and thank you Arena Net for such a fun expansion.